Here’s a storyline sure to boil a culture warrior’s blood: A rose-loving Kansas City grandmother is the target of a boycott threat by leading national civil rights organizations because she belongs to an organization opposed to illegal immigration.

The boycott may end up costing my Midwestern city millions of dollars in convention business, in addition to an undeserved stain on its image.

The hullabaloo started innocently enough in June, when Kansas City’s newly elected mayor appointed the grandmother, Frances Semler, to the city parks’ board. Semler had worked on the new mayor’s campaign, and the appointment was a political thank you. Then it was learned that in between pruning duties with a local rose society, Semler also organizes meetings for the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps, the highly controversial organization known for (among other exploits) sending members to patrol the U.S./Mexico border.

Soon, the National Council of La Raza and the NAACP, both of which had planned conventions in Kansas City, were pushed by members to respond. Both groups objected that prominent public office is inappropriate for a member of a Minuteman group.

Eventually, the NAACP and the National Council of La Raza vowed to pull their upcoming conventions from the city unless the 73-year-old resigned from either the parks board or the Minutemen. At the moment the sides remain deadlocked, but if the boycott goes through, it could end up costing the city an estimated $15 million in tourism revenue – and civic leaders fear that other groups may follow suit.

Are the Minutemen that dangerous? And is all this hubbub merited for a granny on the parks board?

Yes and no. The Minutemen walk the line between a pressure group and a hate group. The leader of one faction was arrested while patrolling on federal parkland, carrying a concealed weapon as he tracked undocumented immigrants. The two main Minuteman groups have continually had problems culling their rosters of white supremacists, who love the groups’ anti-Hispanic rhetoric. Minutemen leaders constantly refer to interracial violence that may happen in the struggle to halt what they believe is the Hispanic “Reconquista” of America – but they are careful to refrain from advocating open violence. Yet when a van carrying 12 illegal immigrants was attacked by armed men, resulting in one murder, the founder of the San Diego Minutemen said, “In America, we call incidents like that ‘cleansing the gene pool.’ “

In reality, Frances Semler and the Kansas City Minutemen are bit players. As in most communities, these Midwest Minutemen have done little besides publicity stunts. In fact, Semler and the group’s most vocal local leader in Kansas have never even been to the border and are remarkably uninformed about immigration law – or anything else having to do with illegal immigration.

But the whole saga has now turned into a symbolic showdown over the right of free speech. In letters to the editor and calls to radio stations, Kansas Citians have denounced the NAACP and the National Council of La Raza for blackmailing the mayor by shoving diversity down his throat. One letter writer called the civil rights groups “un-American,” and likened their views to those of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. And those were among the publishable comments.

And, as is so often the case, many of the angry commentators on the Kansas City affair have been careful to make a distinction between illegal and legal immigrants – before launching into diatribes about hearing too much Spanish and the cost of educating the children of immigrants.

Undeniably, the so-called browning of America is a huge demographic shift. At about 44 million – 15 percent of the U.S. population Latinos are the nation’s largest minority group. It is not racist to have questions and concerns about this dramatic change – or about illegal immigration, for that matter. But only about 6 million Mexicans in this country are illegal immigrants, and about 40 percent of them first arrived legally. So when Minutemen and their sympathizers blend talk about the “invasion” from the southern border and losing the American heritage, just who is of concern? The vast majority of Latinos are here legally, if not U.S. citizens.

Neither side in Kansas City has shown political astuteness. The mayor should have accepted Semler’s resignation when she offered it months ago. Local Latino leaders did a poor job of articulating their opposition to the Minutemen. By jumping to boycott, they helped shove the controversy toward a stalemate.

The National Council of La Raza could make the best of a bad situation by inviting Semler to their convention. Let her hang out with articulate Latinos well versed on immigration, to share concerns, debate and hopefully learn. After all, reasoned, informed dialogue about immigration is what our country so desperately needs – not more border wars.

Mary Sanchez is an opinion-page columnist for The Kansas City Star.